The Legislative Assembly (AL) yesterday passed the outline of a government-initiated bill that proposes to raise the penalties for certain illicit gambling activities, specifically bar the operation of online betting, and clearly define parallel betting as an illicit gambling activity.
The bill proposes to establish a new criminal law on illicit gambling to replace the current one enacted in 1996 when Macau was still under temporary Portuguese administration.
Secretary for Administration and Justice André Cheong Weng Chon introduced the outline of the bill during a plenary session in the legislature’s hemicycle yesterday.
After yesterday’s passage of its outline, the bill will be passed to one of the legislature’s standing committees for an article-by-article review, after which it will be resubmitted to another plenary session for its second and final debate and article-by-article vote.
Pointing out that the current illicit gambling law has been in force for over 20 years, Cheong underlined the government’s commitment to continuing to improve its work on combating illicit gambling.
According to gaming industry sources, some of the now defunct junket operators ran untaxed parallel betting (aka side betting) schemes that reduced both the government’s gaming tax receipts and the gross gaming revenues (GGRs) of some of Macau’s gaming concessionaires and sub-concessionaires.
According to Cheong, the bill proposes to clearly define parallel betting (aka betting under the table) and include it in the scope of illicit gambling.
The bill proposes to specifically bar the operation, promotion and organisation of online gambling activities, regardless of whether the respective IT systems, devices and equipment are installed in Macau or not, Cheong said.
The bill also proposes to raise the penalties for certain illicit gambling crimes, Cheong said.
Cheong also said considering that illicit gambling crimes are often conducted at night, the bill proposes that the police will be allowed to search private homes between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m. while investigating suspected gambling crimes.
According to the current Penal Procedures Code, police officers investigating a crime are not allowed to search private homes between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m. unless the residents concerned agree to the search.
The bill proposes that for investigating certain gambling crimes, the police will be allowed to search one’s home at any time without permission from those concerned.
